The male Willy Wagtail is attempting to drive the Kookaburra off. Kookaburras will prey on fledgling birds in nests and probably eggs also so their presence is often objected to by other birds in the locality. The Kooka doesn't look to worried in that pic but I bet the Willy Wagtail eventually got it to move on. Good pic too. Cheers

Thanks Sambar, I didn't know Kokaburras would do that but they are a pretty opportunist animal, I have seen one take the sausage out of a sausage sandwich mid flight, hahaha!The Willy Wagtail ended up getting a mate to help drive the Kookaburra away.

HN.....it's not "the bird in the fight" but rather "the fight in the bird". The Willy Wagtail is a pretty gutsy little bird and very persistent when it comes to driving off predators that may take it's young or eggs.

I was up the bush a few weeks ago doing some deer hunting and camped in my usual spot beside the river and had the resident family of WWT's flitting about taking insects on the wing and picking-up ants and bugs off the ground around my feet. Suddenly they all became very agitated and started darting around at something behind a tussock 5m or so from where I was sitting. Soon after the object of their attention slithered into view.....a pretty solid brown snake about 4 foot long.....all 4 WWT's were darting down very close the snake and almost beating it with their wings while calling constantly. The brown very quickly got the message and slithered off plopping into the river and swimming across to the far bank with the 4 birds escorting it closely as it went. With the foe vanquished they just carried-on flitting about camp like nothing much had ever happened.

That second pic is a great one too.....with both the WWT's really giving it to that kooka......although it appears to be not overly concerned by all the commotion and has almost a "if I ignore them maybe they'll go away" look on its face. Kookaburras are great opportunistic hunters.....snakes, lizards, kitten rabbits, all manner of insects smallish birds and their eggs/young and even a sausage in bread are all likely prey when they are on the prowl for a feed. Cheers

gbagua wrote:Has anyone been fortunate enough to see one of these lovely 'critters?

Fingers crosses I spot one on my upcoming trip to Sundown NP.

The spotted-tail species is the one found in the park.

Hey Gbagua...we actually saw one of those lovely critters (spotted tailed quoll) in Sundown National Park while camping above Double Falls. It entertained us while we sat drinking our morning cuppa! We did a blog post on our walk there (https://awildland.blogspot.com/2018/05/ ... .html#more). Hopefully you are lucky enough to spot one too, they are lovely.

Meanwhile folks here’s our find from walking in Kosciuszko National Park last week. A Macleays Swallowtail butterfly that was nearly comatose in the early morning coolness but soon warmed up. All day we saw many of them flying around. Just beautiful.

Cheeky Kea down near the start of Milford Track in ten west coast of the South Island of NZ. These guys are pretty damn clever, and when they take off they’ve got fire red feathers on the underside of their otherwise green wings.

Recently did a Cox's River walking/packrafting trip and saw a rather large feral bull trotting down the left bank of the river. It proceeded to cross the river about 50 meters in front of me. It paused in the middle of the river to check me out as I floated down river towards it and then hoofed it out and trotted down the right bank of the river.

That Butterfly is very nice, don't see as many colourful ones as I used to.

A walk to the shops counts, yeah? Saw this little guy and had to grab the camera, not all that sharp as it was at 2500ISO. I have to get a better hand grip so I can shoot at slower speeds, I'm using a grip meant for small lenses but shooting with a 400mm lens, it's quite awkward.

Wished I'd shot a bit more to the left, I didn't notice the spider web at the time. Got a pretty average shot of a Buff Banded Rail in the creek too, seems we only have one left, a cat was patrolling the area they live in a few weeks ago and three haven't been seen since. Was pretty sad as the chicks were only a few weeks old.

Scrambling at night in the Budawangs and my friend grabs a branch for support. Said branch was photographed lizards perch. Rather entertaining to watch a reptile and a mammal have a heart attack simultaniusly.

Over time, I'd forgotten what a Bullant bite felt like...up until last night.Intensifying pain. Three big angry marauder's flick off my sock after biting through to my ankle.Pain lasted about 5 mins then subsided. No swelling.Must have been a nest near by...inch long buggers.Memory refreshed....

Main Range N.P, Qld.

PS. 2days after...the itchiness started, all day long, all I wanted to do is scratch my ankle for relief.

ofuros wrote:PS. 2days after...the itchiness started, all day long, all I wanted to do is scratch my ankle for relief.

I normally use Tea Tree Oil but had Difflam anti inflammatory at hand the other day and I found that it seemed to work better than the normal anti itch type products.

I'm putting my camera gear up for sale, not really interested in a DSLR for now, glad I bought one before they died out but I'm more a compact camera kinda guy.Had a Fuji mirrorless and a Lumix mirrorless but will probably just end up with a Sony RX100 IV, had a Ricoh GR but wasn't right for me as manual focus was a joke!